Netanyahu Turns Down Salary-Hike Idea

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gets paid less than the IDF chief of staff and the chief of police, and Likud MK David Amsalem would like to correct that injustice — but Netanyahu vetoed the idea.

Amsalem told Hadashot news (formerly Channel 2) on Thursday that he wanted to introduce a bill to raise the salary of the prime minister above that of other senior officials, but the idea was turned down.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu very much respects MK David Amsalem, but on the subject of salaries, he does not share his opinion,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said. “The prime minister does not think there is a need to change the prime minister’s salary or the salaries of other officials.”

Interestingly, the matter was aired on the same day as Netanyahu’s attorney Yaakov Weinroth described his longtime client as “an honest man” but one who “likes money…and has a tendency to see wealth as an ideology to strive for. I have seen this tendency in general among rich people,” in an interview with Channel 12.

Currently, the prime minister earns NIS 48,815 ($13,900) a month, compared to NIS 84,400 ($24,000) for the IDF chief of staff, the police commissioner’s monthly wage of NIS 82,700 ($23,500), and the President (also known as Chief Justice) of the High Court’s salary of NIS 92,973 ($26,400).

In another of a series of recent swipes at police commissioner Roni Alshich, Amsalem said: “The police commissioner receives NIS 97,400 [per month] and a [entry level] police officer receives NIS 6,000,” said Amsalem. “So if he [Alsheich] would receive NIS 40,000 and he [the police officer] receives NIS 10,000, that isn’t better? That doesn’t sound more fair?

“If I were the police commissioner, I wouldn’t take NIS 100,000; my conscience wouldn’t allow it,” said Amsalem. (The figure quoted for Alshich was inaccurate, according to Hadashot.)

An unnamed police official dismissed the salary proposal as politically motivated.

“This is a coordinated and orchestrated campaign against the police and its senior officers,” the source told the station. “The timing of this campaign is closely tied to the sensitive cases being investigated now by police.”

Netanyahu was questioned by police investigators again on Thursday.